Five horses who have made a mark on the British point-to-point circuit this season are heading to The Cotswolds for tomorrow’s Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale.
Fifty-four lots have been catalogued, including the British contingent of pointers comprising The Ballybreen Fox (Lot 1, pictured above), Impression Chic (Lot 18), Bond Broker (Lot 40), Diamond Dealer (Lot 43) and Imperial D’Ainay (Lot 53).
Hannah Clarke, who trains The Ballybreen Fox from a yard near Milborne St Abbas in Dorset, will be selling at Tattersalls Cheltenham for the first time. Her horse, a five-year-old son of Mount Nelson, was unplaced in two Irish point-to-points last season, but since being bought by his new trainer for £20,000 at Goffs UK’s Spring Sale he has finished a close second at Larkhill and then scored in impressive style at Milborne St Andrew. The trainer’s partner, Charlie Marshall, was in the saddle on each occasion.
Clarke says: “When I bought him at Doncaster he was big, raw and green. People forget that the way they do it in Ireland is fine for some horses, but some aren’t strong enough and cannot cope with it. The Ballybreen Fox is a seriously nice looking horse, but you could tell just be looking at him that he needed time.”
The form of The Ballybreen Fox’s two runs in Britain has worked out well – horses who finished behind him have run well since, and Happy Day Emery, who beat him by a head at Larkhill, unseated at the final fence when set to win a restricted race next time he ran – and Clarke says her horse has been sparkling since his Milborne victory.
She says: “We had a couple of people who were interested in buying him after his win, but selfishly I wanted to take him to the sales. That’s the route I want to go down, by training young horses with a view to selling them, and until you sell horses [at public auction] people don’t know who you are. We want the right money for him, but I’ll be happy to take him home, because in the long run I believe he could be a Foxhunter horse. It’s heart over head, but you dream of having a horse of his capability.”
Hannah Clarke, Dorset trainer who sends The Ballybreen Fox to Cheltenham **Carl Evans
Worcestershire trainer Tom Weston owns and trains four-year-old Bond Broker (Doyen) who won on debut at Garthorpe earlier this month when the Bradley Gibbs-trained five-year-old mare Impression Chic (Spanish Moon) finished six lengths behind in second, conceding 7lb. Chris Barber, who is also based in Dorset, trains four-year-old Diamond Dreamer (Diamond Boy), who won nicely at Buckfastleigh on debut, and Imperial D’Ainay, a five-year-old son of Montmartre who made a winning first start when running at Badbury Rings on Sunday.
Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale starts at 1pm on Thursday and will be screened live via the website www.tattersallscheltenham.com